Looking Back at Samoa: History, Memory, and the Figure of Mourning in Yuki Kihara’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

No metrics data to plot.

The attempt to load metrics for this article has failed.

The attempt to plot a graph for these metrics has failed.

The full text of this article is not currently available.

Brill’s MyBook program is exclusively available on
BrillOnline Books and Journals. Students and scholars affiliated with an
institution that has purchased a Brill E-Book on the BrillOnline platform
automatically have access to the MyBook option for the title(s) acquired by the
Library. Brill MyBook is a print-on-demand paperback copy which is sold at a
favorably uniform low price.

Samoan Japanese artist Yuki Kihara’s photographic series Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (2013) focuses on sites of current and historical significance in Samoa. In taking on the title of French artist Paul Gauguin’s 1897 work, Kihara signals her desire to engage with the history of representation of the Pacific in Western art through dialogue with Gauguin and the history of colonial photography. Casting herself as a version of Thomas Andrew’s Samoan Half Caste (1886), a figure in Victorian mourning dress, she directs the viewer’s gaze and invites all to share her acts of mourning at these sites. The literal meaning of the title also indicates how the series engages with history via the Samoan concept of vā, collapsing time in space, to produce an understanding of both the country’s present and the potential future such history invites.

16. HardachGerd,. “"Defining Separate Spheres: German Rule and Colonial Law in Micronesia".” In European Impact and Pacific Influence: British and German Colonial Policy in the Pacific Islands and the Indigenous Response , edited by HieryHermann J., and MacKenzieJohn M., 231–258. London: IB Taurus, 1997.

17. HezelFrancis X.Strangers in Their Own Land . Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1995.

18. Kihara, Yuki. “Artist Statement.” Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Milford Gallery, 2013. .

19. MeleiseaMalama. Making of Modern Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the History of Western Samoa . Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987.

32. ShackelfordGeorge T. M. “"Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”" In Gauguin Tahiti , edited by George T. M. Shackelford and Claire Frèches-Thory, 166–203. Boston: MFA Publications, 2004.

38. TcherkézoffSerge,. “"A Reconsideration of the Role of Polynesian Women in Early Encounters with Europeans: Supplement to Marshall Sahlins’ Voyage around the Islands of History".” In Oceanic Encounters: Exchange, Desire, Violence , edited by JollyMargaret,, TcherkézoffSerge, and TryonDarrell, 113–159. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2009.

40. ThackrayLucy. “Death Toll in Fiji Rises to 44 With a 10-Month-Old Baby Among Those Presumed Dead After Catastrophic Cyclone Winston Tore Through the Country Wiping Out Whole Village.” Daily Mail Australia, 25 February 2016.